What if we were the same? [Coraline and Others :)) ]

Childhood Memories

Mentions of a noose and suicide.

I woke up. It was silent in the hotel room. I looked around and saw Wybie sitting at the edge of my bed looking scared. His hand was reached out, but he pulled back when I sat up.

"Why are you looking at me in my sleep?"

He scratched his head. "Well, you woke me up. I was sleeping and you were tossing and turning. Then you screamed and threw pillows everywhere. I was about to wake you up but then you did it by yourself."

I wrung my hands. I finally looked down at my bed. The sheets and blankets were scattered. One of my pillows was over on Wybie's bed.

"Fuck. my parents said they would hear me talk and scream in my sleep, i didn't think they were serious." I swiped hair out of my face.

"Why didn't you tell me? We're in this together."

I looked up from my steepled hands. "I'll tell you Why. We weren't exactly on speaking terms. And everybody's been walking on eggshells around me. I know I'm not the same as I was before the Beldam, but people can't just..." I tugged on my hair.

Wybie fiddled with his fingers, the last time we had talked had not ended well. It ended with me giving him a blackeye.

"Coraline, I've seen how you react to things, and you are way more irritable than before. When Mr. Bobinski asked us to help him with gathering his mice and you snapped at him."

I looked up and proceeded to jump onto Wybie, both of us tumbling off the bed.

There was an 80's businessman with a noose around his head. "Oh you can see me? Do you know Norman?"

I scrambled off of Wybie, who at the moment looked very confused.

"I know of him. You weren't in our room earlier."

"Ah yes, I like to stay in the office. The money management is impeccable!"

"Ah huh. What time is it?"

He looked at his watch. "It is 3:00 am. Of Course, it's always 3:00 am on my watch. Oh sorry did you mean relative to your time?"

I rolled my eyes. "Wybie, what time is it?"

I glanced at his phone. "It's 5:47 am."

"Norman said to meet us at his house at 6:30."

Wybie and I were dressed and on our way with muffins, this town was pretty large for a "small" town. We passed a few buildings and a school. On the way there was a woman impaled on a tree, a mafia crook, and a woman with curlers in and only asked if there was something burning.

"This is it." I smiled at the pale blue siding on the house.

"This is it? I would have thought he's more of an 'apartment' guy."

I punched Wybie's arm, "Right and and you are?"

He grinned.

We walked up to the house, and I knocked on the door. There was silence and then, a tall, blonde, woman with a white button up, grey formal pants, and a long ponytail answered the door.

"Who are you? Are you the mail person?"

I cleared my throat. "Ah no, we're here to meet someone named Norman!"

She sighed, inhaled and then yelled; "NORMAN YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE!"

There was a crash and thud and Norman appeared at the door. "Great you came!" he went to turn away, and then looked back. "Wait, who's this?"

"Oh! This is Wybie, he insisted on coming with me. He's kinda clingy."

Wybie smacked the back of my head and I laughed.

"Hi, I'm Wyborne Lovat." he nodded.

The blonde woman must not have noticed him but when she did she gasped. "How old are you?" she asked seductively.

"Courteney don't be gross, sorry this is my older sister. The rest are inside."

"The rest?"

Norman nodded.

We entered the living room and there were three other people and a ghost.

"This is my grandmother," he said, motioning to the ghost. I smiled. "This is Neil, Alvin, and Neil's older brother Mitch."

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Coraline. This Is Wybie."

Wybie waved.

"Are you the girl Norman told us about?" Neil asked, looking hopefully.

"Yeah, I can see ghosts too."

"Didn't Norman say you could see more than that miss ghost?" Alvin questioned.

"Yeah, I can see ghosts, spirits, demons, anything supernatural. I can see it and hear it."

They all looked at Norman's grandma.

I sighed, "Courtney, she says to make sure to get to work on time."

Her eyes widened, she grabbed a hot pink blazer and a pink bedazzled phone.

"Norman our parents will be home at nine, don't do anything stupid. Mitch, I'll meet you and your boyfriend at your house later. bye!"

"So Coraline are you seeing anyone?!" Alvin asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Alvin, seriously she and Wybie are clearly dating."

"NO! NO, WE ARE NOT!" I said shouting.

"Jeez Jonsie, yeah no I have a girlfriend and it is not this piece of work." Wybie said nudging me.

"What I'm hearing is that you're available."

"Emotionally and physically, no."

"So Norman, why did you invite me here?"

"Oh yeah! It's upstairs." Wybie and I followed him upstairs with the other trailing behind us.

"In the last thousand years the world has had on and off experiences with the supernatural."

He unrolled a map of the world, there were several red circles and many other scribbles.

"The most recent event being what happened six years ago in a little town called Gravity Falls in Oregon. People close to the town say that a huge bubble formed around the town, and it was indestructible."

"I heard about that! Coraline and I are from one of the larger cities in the area. It was weird because there was a big fluorescent flash, and our power was out for at least a week." Wybie said, pointing roughly to where we lived in Oregon.

I had zoned out, while looking out the window. I remember what the news said that night. "Little town in Massachusetts gets a category nine windstorm." I remember seeing the yellow-green glow of the live broadcasts. The same hue as the light from the door. The fear I felt when I went to check the door. To make completely sure that that door was completely sealed.

"CORALINE?!" Wybie was yelling at me. He grabbed my hand. I had dug one of my fingernails into my hand. Blood hit the floor.

"Coraline, I have bandages and first aid stuff downstairs I'll bring it up." Norman suggested. He made the others follow him.

Wybie stayed behind.

I looked at my cut and scarred hands.

"Jonsie you have no self-preservation!" Wybie dabbed at the blood, making sure that he didn't make the injury worse.